Dear Menaul School Community,
As a father of five and a person who has dedicated my life to the care and education of children, like all Americans and sympathetic people everywhere, I am heartbroken at the events in Uvalde, Texas. There are few good words from my broken heart so I must pray.
Prayer of empathy and mourning written by Nancy Blackman
Spirit, hear our hearts weep with you. Hold us up and be with us in our tears.
Selah
first it was 10
so bold and strong
living their days
grocery shopping at tops
but in you walked
hate spewing from your pores
taking lives one by one
who
why
what
a peyton gendon manifest
left dripping with hate
online for everyone
raw racism
you drove and drove
until you reached tops
strolling in with
gun-in-hand
who
why
what
and then came
19 children
2 adults
brought to death
in minutes flat
parents left without
families torn apart
who
why
what
an isolated loner
woke up one day
his salvador ramos anger
shelled out on grandma first
parents left crying
families left morning
who
why
what
As a steward and leader responsible for several hundred human beings, this event is a preparedness gut check.
Therefore, I am outlining recent upgrades we have made this year to protect our community. Here they are for your review.
- We have added nine new cameras around campus (eight more planned for this summer) which the security guard monitors constantly from his Security House. We installed six high tech smart cameras four years ago. The new cameras have superior resolution and are more easily installed to cover the spaces we need. We are also making plans to add a drone camera which will make regular rounds on campus.
- In January, we added Rave alert system, a cutting-edge emergency communication app which allows teachers to alert police, fire, and health services as well as our community to an emergency from their phone. This allows us to go away from bells and classroom phones as communication devices. This system pinpoints to first responders where the issue is on campus and allows us to respond quickly for less urgent matters.
- We have extended our manned security hours into early evening. This helps us protect the physical campus until we close the gate after sports activities conclude.
- We continue to do fire, active shooter, and bomb threat drills each year – most frequently at the beginning of the school year.
- We continue to lean on our close supportive community as a way to hear about threats before they happen. We are blessed to know our students and families well which helps us know about and monitor any possible threat which frankly is rarely an issue.
Finally I have to admit that a response to this type of issue would be based on our police force’s preparedness to intervene. I expect any event in Albuquerque will be met with courage and professionalism.
